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Kids Ear Infections
January 28, 2008 |
When 12-month-old Jordan Carr gets an ear infection, his mom says his usual happy
attitude quickly changes. “He is not himself. He tends to be a little bit more crabby
than anything and he just doesn’t have an appetite. For me it’s frustrating because he can’t speak to me yet,” says his mom Betsy Caballero. During Jordan’s first year of life Betsy says she dealt with ear infections on a very regular basis. “Ear infections
have been back to back lately especially between nine to 12 months.” Dr. Eric Jones
says that is very common and most of those infections go away within a short period
of time. “Ear infections are generally very short term problems. But after you treat
an ear infection there is a possibility that fluid can stay in the middle ear space
or the hearing space for a good four to six weeks after that.” Dr. Jones adds that’s
why it’s important for parents to stay on top of treating ear infections especially
if they become a prolonged problem. “If fluid remains in the hearing space it can
cause a lot of problems with the way the child hears out of that ear. And we all
know that hearing is extremely important to speech development if you can’t hear
you can’t speak or you don’t learn the proper noises to make,” he says. Pediatricians
say ear infections do not always need to be treated with antibiotics. They say parents
can
try to give their child Tylenol and lots of fluids to help pop the ear. Most
ear infections tend to be viral infections that have settled in a space of the inner
ear. |
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